A week in Myanmar: Ancient city of Bagan

Bagan was the capital city of the first Myanma Kingdom, the site located at the banks of the Irrawardy river, measures 13 by 8 km and contains more than 2500 Buddhist monuments (temples, stupas, monasteries, etc) built from the 10th to the 14th centuries AD. This is the world’s densest concentration of temples in one site. Several of these monuments are still highly venerated by the population, and attract numerous pilgrims and devotees from all over the country, particularly at festival times. Today it is an Unesco archaeological zone.

My friend and I decided to go to Myanmar because she wanted to celebrate her birthday there.

We flew into Yangon and straight off the plane, (well after we changed some crisp USD into local KTS at the airport) we took a taxi (KTS 6,000) to Aung Mingalar bus station and caught an overnight bus “Shwe Mindalar” (KTS 25,000 pre booked through and agent) from Yangon to Bagan. It took about 9.30 hours . We left at 7pm and arrived at 4.30am. We spent 2 nights in Bagan. We chose to stay in Nyaung U which is near to old Bagan where the temples are. We stayed at Aung Mingalar. The hotel was a few minutes walk from the bus stop, which was a relief as it was dark when we arrived.

This might read like the amazing race but trust me, it felt like it. On hindsight, we should have stayed longer but we didnt have enough time.

The first day we rented a bicycle (KTS 2,000) but smartened up on the second day and rented an e bike for KTS 7,000 (USD 7)

We pretty much followed the itinerary from the Lonely planet Myanmar which we found really helpful.

I’m putting the costs in because I found it really helpful when I was doing research on the area. The best place to change money is at the airport. I brought new USD notes in large denominations. I didnt have a problem changing money. There are ATMs as well but I didnt try them. There is also free wifi at the airport if you need it.